Coaches may soon get expanded time to work with eighth-graders
Baseball pitch-count plan goes before schools
Of the six action items voted on by the New Mexico Activities Association board of directors Wednesday, two had more news value than the rest.
The first pertains to coaches being able to work with eighth-graders during a sport’s offseason.
Coaches are allowed 7½ hours of contact time per week (only during days when school is in session) with athletes in grades 9-12. The board on Wednesday voted unanimously to expand this to grades 8-12, which was especially welcome news for coaches in winter and spring sports.
Many schools in New Mexico — both large and small — need eighthgraders to fill out sub-varsity teams; Albuquerque Public Schools restricts varsity rosters to grades 9-12.
The NMAA members must still vote to confirm this change. As the bylaw stands, eighth-graders can’t start practicing with teams until the first official day of practices for that season. In softball, for example, that means late January/early February.
If this change passes, the NMAA hopes to get it immediately on the books to benefit current eighthgraders who otherwise have only a club coach, or specialized coach, to practice with in the offseason.
The other major action item related to baseball, and a story the Journal has reported previously.
In July, the National Federation of State High School Associations mandated that the states implement pitch counts for the 2017 baseball season.
And now the NMAA’s member schools will get to have their vote heard on the NMAA’s proposal:
A varsity pitcher who throws between 1-40 pitches in a single day could pitch the next day.
Between 41-60 pitches would require one calendar day of rest.
Between 61-90 would require three calendar days of rest.
Anything over 90 in a single game would require a rest of no fewer than four calendar days.
A varsity pitcher cannot exceed 120 pitches in a game. If he reaches 120 during an at-bat, he will be allowed to finish that batter and then must be removed.
There was an interesting discussion item Wednesday about how to handle a state playoff forfeit. In March, Santa Fe High’s boys disqualified themselves from the Class 6A basketball tournament. The Demons were a 16 seed and replaced by Eldorado.
What would have happened if Santa Fe had been an 11 seed? NMAA executive director Sally Marquez talked Wednesday about simply vacating that slot in the future, and giving the opposing team a berth into the next round, rather than bump other schools up a spot and adding — in the case of basketball, which has a 16-team field — the 17th-ranked school.